Huawei Turns to Europe Soccer Clubs to Market Phones

As China’s Huawei Technologies tries to sell more smartphones in Europe, the company is turning to the region’s popular soccer clubs for help. The latest — and the most obvious — move is a smartphone unveiled this week by Huawei and English Premier League team Arsenal Football Club.

The Ascend P7 Arsenal Edition comes with the north London club’s crest on the back, dozens of Arsenal wallpaper images, pre-loaded soccer video games like FIFA 14 and an app that provides updates on matches. Huawei says this is the first time it is selling a soccer club edition of a smartphone. The description on the new phone’s official Web site launched by Huawei and Arsenal reads: “Arsenal fans deserve a smartphone that reflects the quality of their team.”

The Arsenal phone is the latest example of Huawei’s focus on soccer as one of its main branding themes in Europe. In January, Huawei became Arsenal’s “official smartphone partner” in a deal that also allowed the Chinese company to use the club’s players in its promotional materials world-wide. Arsenal’s partners also include Emirates, Puma, Citroen and Gatorade, among others.

Huawei now has a similar deal in every major European football league. It has, for example, signed partnership agreements with Italy’s AC Milan and Germany’s Borussia Dortmund. In November, Huawei became an official partner of Spain’s Liga De Futbol Professional. In May, Huawei announced an agreement with Dutch soccer club Ajax to provide its stadium with wireless Internet connections while jointly promoting the Huawei brand.

The company hasn’t disclosed financial terms of the partnerships.

Huawei’s focus on soccer may be the quickest way to make its name recognized in Europe, but it could also limit its audience mainly to male consumers, said Canalys analyst Nicole Peng. So far, consumer brands from China haven’t been successful in establishing themselves as international brands. “It will take at least three to five years to change the brand image,” Peng said.

Shenzhen-based Huawei, whose biggest business is supplying telecommunications carriers with networking gear, has been trying to turn itself into a consumer brand. Huawei, which first entered the handset business by supplying phones that mobile carriers sold under their names, began to concentrate on Huawei-branded smartphones a few years ago. Since then, the company has become a major smartphone vendor, helped in part by robust demand in China. In the first quarter of this year, Huawei was the world’s third-largest smartphone maker by shipments with a 5% market share, behind Samsung Electronics and Apple, according to research firm IDC.

Still, Huawei has a long way to go in terms of brand awareness and image.

Many consumers in developed markets either don’t know Huawei or view it only as a maker of cheap Chinese handsets – even though the company’s flagship smartphone comes with hardware features that are comparable to high-end Android phones sold by better-known brands.